Braves acquire RHP Touki Toussaint & Bronson Arroyo for Filthy Phil Gosselin

Hawk said:
http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/...s-ken-rosenthal-notes-062415?vid=471003715773

Dave Stewart:

“The truth is we did not know what Touki’s value would be if we shopped him. There is a lot of speculation on that. People are assuming it would have been better, but we don’t know.

“There was an opportunity to make a deal that gave us more flexibility today as well as next year. We took that opportunity. It’s tough to say we could have gotten more. He was drafted at No. 16, given ($2.7) million. In my opinion, that’s his value.

“To this point, he has pitched OK, he has pitched well. But guys are mentioning that he throws 96 mph. He hasn’t thrown 96 mph since he’s been here. We haven’t seen 96 once. There is some inflation of what people think Touki is.

“We think he’ll be a major-league pitcher. We don’t see it happening in the next three or four years. Maybe five or six years down the road, he’ll show up and be a major-league pitcher. But that is a long ways down the road.”

One rival executive points out that trading a prospect such as Toussaint only a year after drafting him is demoralizing to all those with the D-backs who work in scouting and player development.

Arizona, which entered Thursday just four games out of first place in the NL West, could justify the move by reinvesting the savings at the deadline.

Stewart, though, said that is not necessarily the plan.

“We have not really discussed a lot of what we’re going to do at the trade deadline,” Stewart said. “It’s a surprise to everybody — not just the general public, but also to us — that we’re playing as well as we are and that we’re in the circumstance we’re in.
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Wut?
 
Hawk said:
Yes.

http://www.milb.com/news/article.js...d=131327282&vkey=news_milb&fext=.jsp&sid=l118

He was hitting 97 MPH in his last start.

Dave Stewart is truly delusional.
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Most of the time, when I read stuff like this three times and start thinking about the factual inaccuracies and logic fails, I start looking at who is making the decisions there. Then when I realize Tony LaRussa is involved, I stop thinking about it and go give my cat a bath or something.

He's way smarter than me.
 
Hawk said:
http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/...s-ken-rosenthal-notes-062415?vid=471003715773

Dave Stewart:

“The truth is we did not know what Touki’s value would be if we shopped him. There is a lot of speculation on that. People are assuming it would have been better, but we don’t know.

“There was an opportunity to make a deal that gave us more flexibility today as well as next year. We took that opportunity. It’s tough to say we could have gotten more. He was drafted at No. 16, given ($2.7) million. In my opinion, that’s his value.

“To this point, he has pitched OK, he has pitched well. But guys are mentioning that he throws 96 mph. He hasn’t thrown 96 mph since he’s been here. We haven’t seen 96 once. There is some inflation of what people think Touki is.
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First, the fact that you don't know what his value was is exactly what people are criticizing you for, Dave. Saying, 'we made a trade involving a valuable asset without spending any time to determine exactly what the value of the asset might really be and just took the first offer,' is not a defense of the move.

Second, other scouts have the same ability to see your players as yours do. They all say the opposite of what you're saying.

And third, it gives you flexibility today and $4.5 million next year....but you may not use it this year? Man, that is hilarious.

Like I've said, the D-Backs need to stop trying to defend the trade. Every time they do it looks worse and worse.
 
Wow, the more Stewart says, the worse this looks for him. His motives seemed confusing at first, but now the situation just seems flat-out embarrassing.
 
DirkPiggler said:
http://articles.latimes.com/1985-01-25/sports/sp-9423_1_dave-stewart
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What the article doesn't mention is that when Stew went in to the clubhouse the next day, his teammates serenaded him with Kenny Rogers' "Lucille". Which surely had to have been one of the all-time great moments in a baseball clubhouse.

Guys, Stew didn't do this. Tony LaRussa (Italian for "Alexander Cartwright") doesn't want to wait on high school pitchers, no matter how good they might be. So he makes Stew get rid of him and then he makes Stew defend "his" deal in the press, when its LaRussa, the prick, as puppeteer.

Stewart is no dummy. LaRussa, OTOH, is a piece of work.
 
Hawk said:
http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/...s-ken-rosenthal-notes-062415?vid=471003715773

Dave Stewart:

“The truth is we did not know what Touki’s value would be if we shopped him. There is a lot of speculation on that. People are assuming it would have been better, but we don’t know.
“There was an opportunity to make a deal that gave us more flexibility today as well as next year. We took that opportunity. It’s tough to say we could have gotten more. He was drafted at No. 16, given ($2.7) million. In my opinion, that’s his value.
“To this point, he has pitched OK, he has pitched well. But guys are mentioning that he throws 96 mph. He hasn’t thrown 96 mph since he’s been here. We haven’t seen 96 once. There is some inflation of what people think Touki is.
“We think he’ll be a major-league pitcher. We don’t see it happening in the next three or four years. Maybe five or six years down the road, he’ll show up and be a major-league pitcher. But that is a long ways down the road.”
One rival executive points out that trading a prospect such as Toussaint only a year after drafting him is demoralizing to all those with the D-backs who work in scouting and player development.
Arizona, which entered Thursday just four games out of first place in the NL West, could justify the move by reinvesting the savings at the deadline.
Stewart, though, said that is not necessarily the plan.
“We have not really discussed a lot of what we’re going to do at the trade deadline,” Stewart said. “It’s a surprise to everybody — not just the general public, but also to us — that we’re playing as well as we are and that we’re in the circumstance we’re in.
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minions_what-11.png
 
Hawk said:
http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/...s-ken-rosenthal-notes-062415?vid=471003715773

Dave Stewart:

“The truth is we did not know what Touki’s value would be if we shopped him. There is a lot of speculation on that. People are assuming it would have been better, but we don’t know.

“There was an opportunity to make a deal that gave us more flexibility today as well as next year. We took that opportunity. It’s tough to say we could have gotten more. He was drafted at No. 16, given ($2.7) million. In my opinion, that’s his value.

“To this point, he has pitched OK, he has pitched well. But guys are mentioning that he throws 96 mph. He hasn’t thrown 96 mph since he’s been here. We haven’t seen 96 once. There is some inflation of what people think Touki is.

“We think he’ll be a major-league pitcher. We don’t see it happening in the next three or four years. Maybe five or six years down the road, he’ll show up and be a major-league pitcher. But that is a long ways down the road.”

One rival executive points out that trading a prospect such as Toussaint only a year after drafting him is demoralizing to all those with the D-backs who work in scouting and player development.

Arizona, which entered Thursday just four games out of first place in the NL West, could justify the move by reinvesting the savings at the deadline.

Stewart, though, said that is not necessarily the plan.

“We have not really discussed a lot of what we’re going to do at the trade deadline,” Stewart said. “It’s a surprise to everybody — not just the general public, but also to us — that we’re playing as well as we are and that we’re in the circumstance we’re in.
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I hope Touki has a copy of this hanging where he can see it everyday.

To Dave Stewart: Braves fans thank you.
 
Julio3000 said:
Yes, but we didn't personally see it.

/Tony La Russa's law degree.
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....which, BTW, is from that bastion of higher learning, FSU - or, as we called it at the UF Law School, The School for People Who Couldn't Get In Here. Triple A.

35 years in a baseball uniform, despite his lifetime .159 average, which is a pretty cool way to make a living. I've never seen the guy smile. You think he's always that deep in thought? Or is he just an asshole?
 
Runnin said:
I hope Touki has a copy of this hanging where he can see it everyday.

To Dave Stewart: Braves fans thank you.
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Haitians have endured a lot, and this guy and his family are no exception. They've spent a lot of time figuring out how to survive by the time they reach adulthood. Unless I miss my guess, he is mentally tough.

Also lost in all the velocity talk is that the guy was 4.0 in high school and a Vanderbilt signee when AZ came with the cash and mama reluctantly agreed to send her boy with them.

I like smart pitchers.
 
GovClintonTyree said:
....which, BTW, is from that bastion of higher learning, FSU - or, as we called it at the UF Law School, The School for People Who Couldn't Get In Here. Triple A.

35 years in a baseball uniform, despite his lifetime .159 average, which is a pretty cool way to make a living. I've never seen the guy smile. You think he's always that deep in thought? Or is he just an asshole?
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Well, he loves the stray puppies and kittens, so I guess there's that.

He's always struck me as very prickly and joyless guy. I'd be curious to know how people around the game really feel about him--I can't imagine it's as warm as the feelings towards, say, Cox or Torre, but I really have no idea.

This DBacks experiment is going to be an interesting one to watch.
 
MLBTR: "Rosenthal adds one interesting note on the Braves‘ recent acquisition of Touki Toussaint from the Diamondbacks. Atlanta’s current director of baseball operations, Billy Ryan, was Arizona’s assistant GM at draft time last year, and actually was heavily involved in getting Toussaint to sign."
 
clvclv said:
Another take...

http://insidethezona.com/2015/06/to...raves-process-arroyo-failure-failure-failure/
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Two things jumped out at me in this blog article:

The deal was discussed over a month ago, and once Toussaint had cleared one calendar year from his draft date, it was completed.

Toussaint has as high of a ceiling as any current minor league pitcher outside of perhaps Lucas Giolito and Julio Urias. For a team short on impact prospects, he was easily the player with the highest potential impact. The team obviously agreed with that assessment when they gave him $2.7 million as a signing bonus, about 15% over his slot allotment. That did happen under La Russa.
 
Braves1976 said:
MLBTR: "Rosenthal adds one interesting note on the Braves‘ recent acquisition of Touki Toussaint from the Diamondbacks. Atlanta’s current director of baseball operations, Billy Ryan, was Arizona’s assistant GM at draft time last year, and actually was heavily involved in getting Toussaint to sign."
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Our strategy seems to be hiring some former front office exec from every team in the league in order to give us inside information. Which...isn't a bad idea, truth be told.
 
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